Beasteh

Finished the missions in The Crew. Which were actually not the best part of the game. In fact, many of them were controller-snappingly frustrating (e.g. those damn takedown missions, and if I ever have to play another game where I have to drive into boxes 100 times over, it will be too soon). The plot's bizarre, trying to mix GTA and Fast & Furious but it feels like a contrivance to lead you through the lacklusture missions. Also, for a dev team that seems passionate about cars, I was disappointed to see a lack of attention to detail (some of the cars have V engines when they should be inline, or you see rear wheel burnouts on FWD cars - it matters, dammit!). Yet somehow I keep coming back to The Crew. Why? It's a pleasure to just drive around in, the mini-America setting lends itself so well to road trips. It's beautiful, spectacular at times. A great game for relaxation and exploration, familiar landmarks raising a smile - forget the missions, this is what The Crew is really about. A walking simulator with cars.

You need to check out Black Mesa, the fan-made reworking of HL1 in Source. It's so much better than Valve's token effort. You'll still have to crouch-jump though, it's part of the game.

Yeah, I think if I'd played much of FC3, Blood Dragon would have felt like more of the same. Then again, it was meant to be an expansion with 80's clothes and a protagonist turned up to 11, so I can forgive it for that.

I kinda agree with you, and I'm not going to force you to go back to it, but Blood Dragon is more varied than you think. The variety in the gameplay is left up to you - do you sneak into the base, silently killing the guards, or do you lure a huge neon t-rex that shoots friggin' laser beams into the base to do the hard work for you? Unlike Far Cry, in Blood Dragon you're seriously overpowered, so it's viable to try different strategies, even go in all guns blazing if you want. Try something different every time! It is perhaps too easy to get stuck in a single style of play, but it's totally possible to switch things up without making the game too hard. Maybe the designers needed to find ways to encourage you to try new approaches (outside of the missions - often you'd have a restriction like enforced stealth for hostage rescue, or have to go in shooting inside an underground facility). (I really enjoyed Blood Dragon, as you can guess)

There are crude maps of many locations (and satellite photos) but the game generally likes to keep you exploring on your own. It's a game that does reward you for doing it. DXHR went too far the other way - it was often easy to avoid the most obvious (dangerous) route 'cause the map gave you too many hints. I'm a fan of the folding baton, with the right augs you can KO guards by walking up behind them and bopping them on the head. Although the NPCs berate you at the start for taking a "shoot first, ask questions later" approach, going lethal was left to personal preference later on which made sense based on the narrative. Perhaps take Dewar's advice and go in shooting? There are plenty of tasty weapons, it'd be a shame to not use them!

The excellent Talos Principle is 75% off on Steam this weekend. The DLC, Road to Gehenna, is also discounted. You know you want to...

Funny this game should come up after so many years. The guys at Monster Factory just did Spore this month. I laughed so hard I cried:

Does anyone have any tips for this game, 'cause man, I am bad at it. Like 0.2 K/D bad. How do you "git gud" at Battlefield? People seem to attack from basically any angle and you're never quite sure which way to look. I see people camping at sniper spots all the time, but when I do it someone knifes you in the back, or can see you from a mile off. Not sure what they're doing that I'm not. The rush mode is personally more satisfying as you always knew where the enemies would come from (and it's a lot less busy). Or is that the point of Battlefield - it's chaos. You're scared, alone, and could die at any moment?

Finished Deus Ex:HR Pacifist run, going stealthy and using non-lethal options along the way. Eventually tried for the "pacifist" achievement, and to my suprise, got it! Tempted to try a a different playthough next time (if there is a next time, damn backlog) since I missed a good chunk of the augments and weaponry on offer. Overall, it did a good job of following the original, although it isn't so heavy on philosophy. I did struggle a bit with the story which seemed to want to say "augmentation is controversial/dangerous" when the gameplay so clearly thinks that augmentations are fucking awesome. The new additions, like the cover system, worked well. The bosses were stupid, but easy to cheese through. On the other hand, that hacking minigame was tense. The city hubs were atmospheric for the most part - did anyone else notice how, no matter where in the world you were, everybody listened to the same conspiracy theorist on the radio? I also did have a good chuckle at the ending: Will I get Deus Ex, M.D.? Maybe after a break, I'm all Deus Ex'd out for now. It's a loooong game.

It's bananas on ketchup.

Just leaving this here... (tw: ketchup) http://i.imgur.com/lZafmqs.jpg

The backlash sounds like toxic gamer culture rearing its ugly head again. There's criticism, and there's spittle-flecked screeds about LIES. Danielle mentioned that the crafting was getting in the way of the core game. I think the point of the warp cell mechanic is to make you wander round looking for the resources, so that you're more likely to find the weird, beautiful vistas. Otherwise there'd be gamers who rushed to the end and missed what the game was about, then they'd complain it was short and it "sucks!" Agree with Rob on the need for deeper, fleshed out worlds. If the game is about exploring, give us a reason to - history, places to go (ruins, mountains, cities...), let us see detailed behaviour of the flora and fauna. More than that, I want a game with proper ecosystems - creatures that prey on each other, fight for territory, munch on the plant life, etc. NMS isn't that game. It's broad but not deep. This great vid from Eurogamer sums up my feelings about the flaws with NMS's worlds: On Mass Effect: Mass Effect 3 was already mentioned, the outcry over it was is similar ("lies" - in this case about the ending not being just "A, B or C") although I think there are differences. Complaints about NMS seem to revolve around gameplay expectations, whereas ME3's controversy was about the bizarre writing in the final chapter - gameplay was still top-notch. Broshep has his place. He's there to represent some of the audience that needs him (Inclusiveness!) Y'all are wrong about Kaidan and Ashley though...

So I have found another delicious use for ketchup: mmm... really want onion rings now.

Outstanding.

Ketchup is great with schnitzel, FWIW. Can be a bit dry otherwise. So it's not a sin all the time... Just when you thought the thread was over, that it couldn't get any worse...

Why Why are you like this

Do it. If you liked Talos Principle, Gehenna manages to provide more and does it better.

... I think we broke him. Don't bring "turkey" twizzlers into this! If I ever seem them again it'll be too soon!

It's true, he hasn't shared his K/D ratio, but he will assure you it's yuuuge. In the interests of balance, here's the Trump video from the same creator: Does anyone else feel like they slipped into an alternate reality where nothing makes sense, 'cause that's what this presidential battle feels like. Honestly, I'd consider MLG Hillary vs Yuge Robot Trump as an improvement...

The Talos Principle: Road to Gehenna Story keeps the sombre-but-hopeful tone of the original, while poking fun at internet forum culture. The terminals make a return, but instead of philosophical discussions (it's light on the philosophy this time), there's forum posts, text adventures and even Jeff Goldblum fan-fiction (have Croteam been listening to Idle Thumbs?). As an expansion pack (sure, it says "DLC" but the game's plenty long enough to merit the description), it goes beyond the difficulty level of the base game, which was often too easy. You'll be using new techniques, pushing the core toolset to new heights - this time it's really a challenge. The final optional puzzles were a cycle of frustration and elation, punctauted with long periods of headscratching. When that "aha" moment comes, it's all worth it. Gehenna delivers such moments in spades. Talos was already one of my favourite games from recent years, Road to Gehenna makes it one of my favourites of all time.

Congratulations! You made it worse!

Ketchup on pizza just feels wrong. But then there's this abomination:

The Podcast title and description had me thinking of that horrifying robot mouth from a few years ago. This one - sounds awful!

That thread tag tho... From reading around for more info, looks like weapon pickups are in (Oh yeah!):

On top of that, the scripts you use in the game are bought from an illicit software marketplace. The game pre-dates bitcoin, so it's done with money, but it's another way the game works to suspend your disbelief. Hacknet looks like a spiritual successor to Uplink, but with a strong focus on the command line like QC.